In the body of hadiths, Imam al-Mahdi is compared with Prophet Moses in the sense that the pharaohs used to kill all the pregnant women, infants and boys in order to try to kill Moses. In the like manner, the tyrant Abbasid caliphs were apt to commit any possible crime so as to kill the last Imam...
When the eleventh infallible Imam of Muslims, Imam Hasan al-Askari, was cruelly poisoned at the age of twenty eight and was martyred by the tyrant Abbasid caliph, Imam al-Mahdi was five. [1] He then became the next Imam.
It is no wonder that his Imamate began in his childhood, for such matters are not strange especially in the light of divine miracles and the God given power bestowed on all infallible Imams. It was not the only instance of such happenings, there is farther widely accepted evidence in history. In line with the above, the life of the Christian apostle John is exemplary about whom the holy Quran says,
And We gave him judgment (apostleship) while still a child, [2]
Also a reference is made to Jesus Christ’s speaking in the cradle; the Quran says,
He said, ‘Indeed I am a servant of Allah! He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. [3]
After the martyrdom of Imam Hasan al-Askari, Imam Mahdi came out of his chamber and said prayer over the dead body of his father, and the almighty God has since veiled and shielded this last Imam beyond the curtain of occultation so as to keep him safe from the danger of their conspiracies and plans to kill him.
In the body of hadiths, Imam al-Mahdi is compared with Prophet Moses in the sense that the pharaohs used to kill all the pregnant women, infants and boys in order to try to kill Moses. In the like manner, the tyrant Abbasid caliphs were apt to commit any possible crime so as to kill the last Imam.
Special Delegates
The first occultation (the lesser occultation) lasted for sixty nine years, right up to the year 329 AH. [4] During this period though Imam al-Mahdi was invisible to the public as well as to his enemies, he had four special delegates who transferred people’s questions to him and his answers back to them and were the intermediaries between the Imam and people and each of them served as delegates in a specific period of time. These four persons were; 1. Uthman ibn sa’id al-Amrawi. 2. Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Amrawi. 3. Hussain ibn Ruh al-Naubakhti. 4. Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samari.
All the sixty nine year period of the lesser occultation served as an introductory step toward the greater occultation. This short chapter in history was aimed at making people ready to endure the greater occultation.
The Greater Occultation
The greater Occultation, so far taking eleven centuries, is different from the previous one in the following respects:
1. It has lasted much longer.
2. Nobody has been authorized or entitled as the special delegate of the Imam.
3. In this period, only fully qualified faqihs – whose characteristics are mentioned in the hadiths from the Imams al-Sadiq, al-Askari, and al-Mahdi [5] – are mentioned as the Imam’s general advocates and are responsible for defending Islam and Muslim’s interests as well as safeguarding the practice of divine laws. This is expressed in the term Walayat al-Faqih.
4. The end of this period depends on the ground of people’s general readiness for the universal divine government, to be ruled by the Imam.
5. No one, save God, knows the length of this period. This was not mentioned in any hadith, either. Consequently, those who claim to know the time of the Imam’s reappearance, are apt to be all liars. [6]
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[1] Al-Mufid, Al-Irshad, p. 383.
[2] 19:12. يَا يَحْيَىٰ خُذِ الْكِتَابَ بِقُوَّةٍ وَآتَيْنَاهُ الْحُكْمَ صَبِيًّا
[3] 19:30. قَالَ إِنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّـهِ آتَانِيَ الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلَنِي نَبِيًّا
[4] Muntakhab, p. 358.
[5] see the Al-Hurr al-Amili, Wasa’il al-Shi’a;
Imam Khomeini, Walayat al-Faqih.
[6] Muntakhab, p. 400.